Welcome to my second post. This time i have made a short movie showing the main interest of my militaria collecting, Helmets.
I
kinda got into it in a roundabout way. I bought my very first two
helmets at a military re-enactment show in the summer of 2001, i was
there taking photos of the event and was astounded at the diversity of
traders and what one could buy from them; from swords to bayonets and
rifles to medieval crossbows or second hand swedish ex-military
underwear!! I thought i should buy something and i almost bought a
deactivated SMLE rifle for a trivial £100, (oh how i wish i did, now),
but i hesitated and eventually saw a stallholder with loads of boxes of
'stuff'. I dug deep and pulled out what i thought was a jerry helmet,
and a nice 'american' type helmet; £20 quid each and they were mine, the
seller even thru a swiss bayonet in for an extra tenner. SOLD!.
I
took the helmets home and never really thought much about them, they
eventually ended up into my mothers loft for 4 years whilst i sorted a
new life out after my divorce. After going 'home' to pick up my last few
bits from my mothers (inc my box of Airfix soldiers and my old game of
'Striker', ) i looked closely at the 2 helmets and decided to check them
via 'Gods Gift' of the internet. This eventually, after a lot of
googling, proved they were infact a Norwegian M1 clone and a Spanish
Modelo 42, a lightweight version of the jerry squarehead. I was hooked
by the thought of getting a version of the WW2 helmets of all the major
combatants, and the advice and help available by forums like the
'MilitaryHelmetCollectorsClub' was invaluable. The next step was where
to find them at a reasonable cost, there were no military antique shops
nearby and virtually no shows in Scotland to buy a bargain, so it was to
Ebay that i turned, and lo and behold there were 'thousands of em' (to
borrow a quote from Zulu).
And so you can now see for yourself
the current collection, unfortunately they are still boxed up and
awaiting a dedicated room for display, when this will happen gawd only
knows, so for now i have to have the odd 'appreciation day' when i get
them out and remember why i collected them in the first place. I have
catalogued and tagged each helmet for future reference, and the 70 odd
helmets are probably worth about £2000 as a complete set. Not much in
financial terms but priceless as artifacts from 2 world wars and the
cold war period when the world stood on the brink, (have we passed the
'brink' yet, ??)
Here's the short movie for your enjoyment, and yes i know, i still have an old xbox, the xbox 360 is due in 2009.....
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=A0VAqe2vU6M
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